If the big fir in the front yard is a favorite place to hang out when the weather is nice, the porch is where the action is for rainy days. In the photo starting at the top, that's blind Helen at the far end, blind Penny, blind Priscilla, her sister Molly, then Bailey and blind and deaf Spinner. Priscilla and Molly are usually snuggled up together on a bed, but for some reason Molly wandered off this time. But it's not just a brief rain shower that brings the dogs up onto the porch; it's a nice, cool place to hang out when it's sunny and hot, too.
One blog reader asked where Trooper was in an earlier photo of the Poodle sisters — he's in one of the dog yards behind the house, with blind Buddy and blind Brody. The girls are kind of "over" Trooper, thankfully. They finally realized what we'd told them all along — they could do so much better than a two-timing hound dog with crooked legs! They seem a bit embarrassed now that they swooned over him way back when.
You can see we added railings to the porch. That's only part of the carpentry work we've had going on here in recent weeks, and I'll post some photos of the projects later this week.
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A couple of people asked about what happened to our skunk, Annie Andrew. This actually was a bit distressing for us to have to leave her behind. While I have no doubt we could have caught her in a live trap, I don't think legally we could have transported her to another state. Even if we could have received permits, relocating wildlife from their home territory can be counterproductive — she might have been driven off or killed by other skunks here, or by other predators. So we've explained to both our real estate agent and our friends who will be looking after the ranch for us that Annie Andrew is a sweet, harmless skunk who won't bother anyone. Hopefully whoever buys the ranch will take the same "live and let live" attitude towards her that we did, and that she did towards us.
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Speaking of selling the ranch, other blog readers have asked whether it is now on the market. Yes, it is. You can see the listing for it here. In a couple of the photos you'll notice an unusual structure you may not have seen before — it's a 26' solar dome greenhouse, a personal project that Alayne and I put in a couple of years ago. I was growing big, fat zucchinis in there this past February, along with a beautiful crop of salad greens and spinach all winter long. These solar dome greenhouses are designed for high-altitude, cold climate gardening, and they work amazingly well. We were sorry to leave it behind, too! Anyway, I knew people would ask about that building when they saw the photos.
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We now have our official new mailing address here in New Hampshire: It's the Rolling Dog Ranch, P.O. Box 150, Lancaster, New Hampshire, 03584. We do have a street mailbox but it's down the road and out of sight, so we thought it better and more secure to use a post office box.
With the new address in hand, I will be working with a Web designer this week to update the Web site, graphic design elements (like the banner at the top of the blog that said, "A special place where disabled animals enjoy life on a Montana ranch" … now changed), and related issues. There are a lot of moving parts, so please bear with us if you notice some things have been updated and others haven't.
Rolling Dog Farm Blog 
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